PackRescue (27 page)

Nath made a low, grinding sound that was more growl than
laugh. Sim struggled, raked the ground uselessly with his paws then lay still.
In a slow, powerful movement, Nath leaned back, pulling Sim’s head back with
him, exposing his throat.

Wordlessly, Cutler assumed the form of his wolf and bit down
on the rogue’s throat at the same time as his brother snapped its spine. Sim
Brice’s body jerked then slumped on the ground, limp and lifeless.

“Your father was my second cousin.” Fina looked up at the
tall, stern, gray-haired Alpha walking beside her. He held out the sweater she’d
retrieved from the back of the rental and slipped it over her shoulders. She’d
dressed in the spare jeans and shirt she’d brought from Wyoming.

“Your voice sounds like his,” she murmured, staring up into
his dark-blue eyes. “He never told us we had relatives in the area.”

He nodded quietly and walked beside her back to the
clearing. The danger had passed but a detail of his pack followed in their wake
anyway, forming a protective guard. “There was some resentment on both sides.
We were finally putting out feelers to resolve that but there wasn’t enough
time.” He glanced up at the early evening sky and exhaled slowly. “Your pack
originated from two members who split from ours. Differing business views,” he
explained when her brow furrowed. “Our previous Alpha was old and set in his
ways. He didn’t follow modern business trends. Hated change,” he added and
slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. “Your father was a financial
genius. We shouldn’t have been so quick to let him go.”

“Now we know where
you
get it.” Nath walked up to her
and nuzzled her cheek. Cutler nodded to the other Alpha then pointedly took his
mate’s hand off the older were’s arm and wrapped it around his.

The gray-haired were grinned, touched his forehead to Fina’s
then stepped away. “If you ever change your mind, Fina Whitesage, you will
always have a home in my pack. You too, Owen.” He held out his hand to Owen,
shook then turned with his pack mates and headed back to the parking lot.

The other older Alpha, the one who led the other pack in the
area, nodded to Cutler and Nath then he and his men left as well.

Fina walked over to Helen, who was shivering despite the
heat of the day and glancing worriedly at the two huge men hovering over her
protectively. Helen held her hand over her nose, trying to shield herself from
the smell of burning fur billowing up from the pyres dotting the clearing. Fina
hugged her friend tightly then smoothed back her wild hair. “Come on. I’ll
drive you home.”

A few minutes later, Fina was standing on Helen’s porch.

“What are you going to tell the police?”

“Nothing,” Helen replied. She rubbed at a smudge of dirt on
her arm. “Those guys made me text my mom. She thinks I went up to school for a
few days to straighten out some course issues.” Helen trembled. “So I guess
your life is different than mine, huh?”

Fina grinned wryly.

“Different reality. Different rules,” Helen sighed. “You’re
going to stay in Wyoming, aren’t you?” She looked down at her feet and sighed
again. “I’ll miss you but I think that’s where you belong now.”

Fina hugged her again.

“Um, are all the guys as hot as these ones?” Helen asked
suddenly. A quick jerk of her thumb pointed out Fina’s new pack mates, who were
waiting in the cars. “Wow. Maybe I can get my parents to spring for a plane
ticket. You think you can hook me up with one of them if I visit for a week? I
promise I won’t be greedy like you and take two.”

About an hour before sunset, Fina and Owen were walking
through their old neighborhood. Her mates and the members of her new pack
trailed in their wake.

“Our pack lands have been restored to us,” Fina said
quietly. She looked up at the sprawling bungalow that used to be Ryan’s home,
noted the unkempt flower beds, the litter on the front lawn.

Owen nodded quietly. His dark blond hair was cut so short it
didn’t even move.

“Have you given any thought to…” Her voice trailed away.

“To
what
?” Owen growled. That furrow between his eyes
deepened. “How come you neglected to mention you’d mated?”

Her feet stopped moving and she looked down at the ground.
Cutler and Nath stood beside her, facing Owen with their arms folded over their
chests but saying nothing.

“Those ideas we were tossing around about you, Ryan and I
forming a pack of our own? That deal’s off the table, Fina.” Owen’s hand
slashed through the air. “Mated females stay put. You know that. It’s one of
the cornerstones of our species.
Not
telling me you were mated, whether
intentional or unconscious, is a pretty big omission,” he added harshly.

Fina blushed.

“And don’t start in about second thoughts, duress or
survivor guilt, woman,” he barked. “You’re an adult. You knew what it meant to
mate with these men. Weres mate for life and you made your decision.”

She kicked at the ground, wrapped her arms around herself
then nodded jerkily. Owen gave her a brusque one-armed hug then let go.

“Ever since you told me about our pack being killed I’ve
been chasing a demon around in my head. I keep thinking, what if one more
strong male in the pack would have made a difference?” Owen’s voice faltered
then he lifted his chin and firmed his mouth. “I ran away because I hated
living here, in this pack. But what if I’d come back? I’m a trained soldier,
Fina. What if…” His voice trailed off. Eventually he started walking again and
Fina fell into step beside him.

“You’ve got issues, Fina,” Owen continued after a while. “All
three of us do. We’re entitled to them,” he added dryly. “Deal with yours but
let your mates help you heal. You and Ryan. You’re his family now. All three of
you. I’m his cousin and legally I’m entitled to be his guardian. I think he’d
be better off with you. Hell I know he would.” Owen ran a sun-darkened, scarred
hand over his head. “We can’t run away from our grief. Don’t let that confuse
you into running away from happiness.”

They walked past the remaining houses.

“I’d like to tear them down,” Owen said suddenly. “Maybe
rebuild. Something new. Different. There’s too much death, too much blood here
now. I can’t stomach the idea of selling these houses to unsuspecting families.”

Fina nodded slowly. “Agreed.”

They picked up the pace and soon they were outside the
nursery. It was run-down, empty and almost completely void of greenery. Trees
that had been planted before Fina was born had been uprooted. The stark, dank
holes hadn’t even been filled in. Harnessing the sorrow welling up inside her,
she keyed in the security code to the office.

“Can you get to them?” Owen asked anxiously.

Her mates shot her a curious look but they and the rest of
her pack followed her inside without question.

“Yes. I made sure the electricity stayed on.” She led them
through the office and into a warehouse area piled high with refuse.

Owen grabbed a discarded pair of gloves and started digging
a path through a pile of empty fertilizer bags. He brushed off a computer
access panel then stood aside, hovering while Fina punched in an access code.

A long, nondescript bank of what looked like refrigerator
doors clicked open. Fina and Owen began checking the contents, the humidity and
temperature gauges.

“They should all still be viable,” Fina said.

“What will you do with them?”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“You can’t let them die. Too much has died here already.”

Fina looked up at her mates. “I can recreate this setup in
Wyoming. I’ll need to dig into the old pack’s coffers but—”

“Do whatever it takes,” Owen interrupted firmly. “Let this
be our families’ legacy. If you want, set some money aside for me in a
retirement fund. Not too much though. My needs are simple and I’ve got a good
job I love doing.” He grinned crookedly. “Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll get
lucky like you and find a pack I fit into as an adult wolf.” He grew serious as
he started shutting the drawers. “Keep this business alive and keep you and
Ryan provided for. His father was a good man. So was yours. I’ll come visit you
when the Wyoming nursery is up and running. Maybe we’ll feel like talking about
them. My mom too.”

Three Years Later

Fina Whitesage-Powell entered through the back door of her
home, swiped the dirt off her overalls and toed off her steel-toed boots. She
ran the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping off the well-earned sweat
and dirt from a good day’s work and walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, Mary. What’s for supper?” Her nose twitched and she
lifted a lid off a pot, inhaling expectantly.

She was rewarded with a light slap on her hand.

“Chicken,” their feisty, sixty-something
housekeeper-slash-cook snapped as she replaced the lid. “About time you got
home too.” She stuck out her cheek and tapped it with her forefinger. Fina
kissed her obediently and affectionately then turned on the tap to wash her
hands. “It might very well be warm outside today, young lady, but that spring
wind has turned your face red.”

“My men like my face when it’s red,” Fina shot back. “And
speaking of men, is Nath home?”

“Hey, sweetheart.” He walked into the kitchen right on cue,
wrapped his arms around Fina’s shoulders, leaned into her back and kissed her
neck. “Hmm. You taste sweaty.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.” She dried off her hands
and pulled two small, square, brass plaques out of her breast pocket. “The
samples arrived today. Tell me which one you like and I’ll get them engraved.”

The front door opened. Fina’s wolf ears picked up the sound
of Cutler’s boots thudding on the floor then the sound of him opening then
closing the gun lockbox inside the hall closet. His firm footfalls preceded him
into the kitchen. “Hey, honey.” He kissed his wife with a resounding, wet,
smacking sound. “Got a call from Bill Anderson’s nephew today. Said he had an
application in for a business startup grant from the pack and wants to talk to
you about something called positioning.” Cutler’s brows drew together. “I think
he’s asking about where to house that new microbrewery of his.”

One corner of her mouth quirked up. “I’ll call him after
supper.”

“Are those the plaques?” Cutler pulled one out of Nath’s
hand. “Tell me again why you need them?”

Fina rolled her neck from side-to-side and stretched her
back. “The plaques will be mounted on rocks that will be set beside each of the
specimen trees I’ve planted around Nath’s base camp. They’ll describe the
plants, give the year they were planted and the country they originated in.”

“Hmm. Sounds good…something you tree huggers will get off
on.” He handed the plaque back to his brother, dug an elbow into Nath’s ribs
and leaped away nimbly when Nath tried to cuff him one.

“Anyway,” Fina sighed loudly, cutting off their jousting
before it got out of hand. “The greenhouse there is fully stocked and I’ve got
a healthy ecosystem going. We’ll be ready for our first customers next week.
Nath was right.” She grinned up at Cutler. “Housing our retail site there is a
perfect tie-in to his ecotourism business. Plus, I like having a secondary
nursery location in case something catastrophic happens to the main nursery.”

She glanced out the back window. Not far from the barn was a
neat line of greenhouses.

An infant started to cry.

“This kid stinks,” Ryan snorted from down the hall. “You
know, you’ll be a lot more fun to hang out with when you can run around and
stuff.” When he entered the kitchen, his face was screwed up and he was holding
a chunky ten month old, carrying the crying baby well away from himself. “I don’t
do poopy diapers,” he declared righteously. By his eighth birthday Ryan had
passed the five-foot mark. Now, at nine, he was tall, gangly and had enormous
hands and feet.

Cutler scooped the baby out of Ryan’s arms. “That’s my son,”
he proclaimed proudly. “Anything worth doing is worth doing loud and proud.”
The aqua-eyed child cooed up at him, slapped Cutler’s cheek with a meaty hand
and drooled. Cutler’s nose wrinkled. “I guess you
do
need your butt
changed after all.” He ruffled Ryan’s hair and grinned down at him. “How was
school today, buddy?”

“Speaking of school,” Nath interrupted. He dropped his fists
onto his hips and faced Fina. “
You
got an email from college. They sent
it to the shared business account. That post-graduate course you’re taking on
tax law? You only got a B-plus.” Both he and Cutler frowned down at her.

Fina cleared her throat nervously but they didn’t say
anything else.

“I also checked my bookings for this summer,” Nath continued
after a moment. His tone softened as he let the subject of her grade drop. “It
looks good. This should be my best year ever. Of course that means I won’t be around
this summer to help you in the nursery, although I should be able to step back
in come October or so.” He crossed over to Fina and hugged her gently. “If you
can handle the phones for me the next couple of months, we’ll be even.” He
kissed her forehead, gave her another gentle squeeze then stepped back to lay
his hands on the slight mound of her belly. He grinned and rubbed it through
her bib overalls like it was the most precious thing he’d ever touched. “Now,
how are all
three
of my girls doing?”

“The twins are sleeping right now,” Fina said, and placed
her hands over Nath’s. “I could use a foot rub.”

“Ah ah,” Mary scolded. She waved a wooden spoon menacingly. “Please.
At least wait until I’ve left for the day.”

Nath looked disappointed but he kissed Fina and leaned in to
whisper, “After the kids are in bed, your wish is my command, sweetheart.”

Cutler kissed her cheek then carried his son away to change
his diaper. “Count me in, honey. Two feet. Two mates. No waiting.”